Consumption of alcohol may result in an accumulation of acetaldehyde, making individuals suffering from associated headaches, nausea, shaking and vertigo. This is typically termed a hangover. A number of products are known in the art, which can be taken to relieve the symptoms of a hangover. Fructose-caffeine-vitamin C and fructose-caffeine mixtures are examples of such products. Generally such products are in powder or tablet form and are added to water to provide a rehydration product for an individual to drink. These products invariably contain an analgesic, such as paracetamol or aspirin, to provide relief from pain. Products containing antihistamines, like Zyrtec, are also frequently used to combat hangover symptoms. Moreover, it may be undesirable to use analgesic and antihistamines in this manner. For instance aspirin can exacerbate some of the problems associated with alcohol consumption, such as gastrointestinal bleeding.
WO 9961038 is one example of such products, containing several of the ingredients found in the present invention. The composition described in WO 9961038 claim to have a nutritionally beneficial substituent and a substituent to stimulate short/ or long term psychological feedback and to vehicles or devices that accomplish the delivery of the nutritionally beneficial substituent to a recipient. This composition is not formulated for promoting alcohol metabolism, and also contains several components previously shown to strongly inhibit alcohol metabolizing enzymes. This is particular the case for thiol components like cysteine, acetylcysteine, glutathione and methionine, [1] which inhibit the activity liver alcohol dehydrogenase (LADH) enzyme (Ki in the uM-mM area). This is also the case for several of the heterocyclic reagents found in this composition [2, 3].
More important, the composition described in WO 9961038 also lack at least three components which is of outmost importance for the promoting effect of the present invention on alcohol metabolism. These are Yerba Matè, Eleutherococus senticocus and Glycyrrhiza glabra. These are components that are essential in the synergistic combinations responsible for stimulating the alcohol and acetaldehyde metabolizing enzymes. Experiments have shown that the absence of each of these components leads to a decrease in the synergistic—and overall effect with 30-50% and 15-25%, respectively. It should also be mentioned that Yerba Matè is added not merely for its natural caffeine content, but also for its content of several other potentially active ingredients as listed in Table 1.
W098/32434 describes a new analgesic composition of acetaminophen targeting decreasing of liver toxicity and releasing of hangover, which comprises aspartic acid promoting alcohol metabolism and methionine alleviating liver toxicity of acetaminophen.
GB 2308810 describes a fructose containing, analgesic free composition for rehydrating or preventing dehydration of an individual. By doing this, the composition is also claimed to treat hangovers caused by dehydration, physical exertion or diarrhoea.
JP 0601474 describes a product capable of promoting alcohol metabolism containing, as active ingredients, a glucoside of quercetin, divalent metallic ion and liquorice extract.
The novelty of the present invention, compared to prior art, is as mentioned above combination of special ingredients working synergistically. This is especially the case for Yerba Matè, Panax ginseng, ginkgo biloba, Eleutherococus senticocus, ginger and Glycyrrhiza glabra (Liquorice Root). Several of these ingredients could be found in the above-mentioned prior art, but not in the necessary combinations to obtain significant synergetic effects. The novel combinations of the present invention were found through a significant number of inclusion/exclusion experiments. The results from these experiments showed surprisingly that an especially effective combination to prevent hangover (and for increased energy level) was Yerba Matè, Panax ginseng and ginkgo biloba and that the synergistically effect was much greater than a mere additative effect. Another novel combination was Eleutherococus senticocus,ginger and Glycyrrhiza glabra (Liquorice Root), which were found to significantly increase the activity of alcohol metabolizing enzymes.
A highly specific composition is provided giving a significantly higher alcohol- and acetaldehyde degradation than any of the above mentioned products as well as existing fructose-vitamin C and fructose-caffeine mixtures. It is free of enzymes and NADH/NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide), which would reduce the stability of the product, and free of compounds harmful to health. The caffeine variants, the herbs and fructose have a synergistic effect.
It is an object of the present invention to obviate and/or mitigate the above disadvantages by providing a composition suitable for accelerating alcohol and acetaldehyde metabolism to reduce/prevent alcohol related damages and hangover symptoms.